I am so fascinated by Thaisha. One of the sorts of characters you almost never get to see in D&D are middle-aged women with regrets, and Thaisha is so clearly both. She is going gray, even if her face doesnāt reflect her age. She has lived a long life already, and has made a lot of choices. And I love that some of those choices have caused harm, and she would probably make the same choice all over again.
She met someone when she wasnāt even twenty, and she had children. And then she found her calling as a druid, but she couldnāt have both. She had to choose between pursuing her calling and raising her children, and she chose her calling. She abandoned her partner, Hal, and their children, and she only reentered their lives much later. It seems like her daughter is more or less on good terms with herāshe might have been young enough not to remember Thaisha very well, so losing her didnāt hurt quite so muchābut the implication is very much that her son is a different story. Al, her son, doesnāt come to the funeral. He doesnāt really communicate with her, and weāre not even sure how in touch with Hal he is. Thaisha made a choice that was necessary for her, but it had a cost, and itās one that she still feels in her bones.
And then out of nowhere comes Occtis. It sounds like Thjazi helped him out of a sticky situation when he was a child. My guess is that he showed serious aptitude for and interest in the arcane, and might have almost been caught illegally practicing magic. Whatever it was, I think it led directly to his break with his family. Alex mentioned that his clothing was fine but worn. He doesnāt ever use his surname, despite it being one of the most powerful families in Dol-Makjar. Wick recognized him only barely, and as someone he hasnāt seen in a very long time.
So whatever happened that Thjazi rescued Occtis from meant that Occtis basically lost his family. And while Thjazi seems like quite the hero, one of the recurring themes of his character seems to be that heās less talented at long-term follow-through. He was never going to be able to raise this kid, but he knew someone he trusted implicitly who had her own storied history of choosing a magical path, and losing a great deal to walk that path.
For Thaisha, itās clear that Occtis is her second-chance. He allows her to get it right, but it puts them both in such an awkward place. She thinks of him as her son when sheās vulnerable. She treats him as a child even though heās probably either almost twenty or in his early twenties. She loves him, but I think he knows how much of a replacement he is. His instict to disguise himself as someone who is an almost-but-not-quite dead ringer for Thaishaās biological son hits like a gut punch. He wants to be her son so badly, but heās also too smart not to know how sheās treating him as her second chance with the son she lost. I wonder if Occtis has ever actually met Al, and if he has, how it went. I wonder if Thaisha knows exactly what sheās doing, and how complicated her second chance really is. Maybe itās like becoming a druid. She knows itās messy. She knows it has a cost. She knows it could all be a disaster, but she needs this second chance. She needs to have a son who loves her, and who doesnāt have the same baggage with her past.
I canāt wait to see how Thaisha shapes up, and I especially canāt wait to see how her relationship with Occtis develops. I half hopeāas much as I love seeing them play togetherāthat they get split up for the first arc of the story, because I think they may both need to grow apart from one another to really understand what they mean to one another, and maybe untangle some of their damage.
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